I’m trying to improve and add stops to my hometown and am getting so frustrated having reviewers deny things for being generic.
A locally owned and operated pizza place with over 400 reviews, only one of its kind, that does Indian style pizzas apparently isn’t unique enough? It’s an excellent place for the community to socialize and watch sports games, or sit on the patio during the summer months. It’s highly rated and gets recommended to visitors.
I wrote all of this in my submission and it still gets denied? Reviewers really expect submitters to draft up an entire essay to convince them that a place where they don’t live is important to the community. I have reviewed thousands of submissions myself and while I do my due diligence, I will always give the benefit of doubt for submissions in areas I am not personally familiar with.
It may well be that it’s not a correct assessment on behalf of community reviewers - happens especially with businesses. For these situations there are appeals. If you’re willing to share the nomination we can brainstorm whether an appeal is warranted.
You don’t need to write an essay, but submitting restaurants is notoriously difficult. I have had some success, even with a local pizza restaurant. As you can see, no essay!
Can you share your submission (including the supporting picture and statement) and we can try to see if we can advise on how to improve it or if we think you could just appeal!
You don’t have to write an entire essay, but the more info provided for reviewers, the better the chances a Wayspot that may be eligible will be approved. The burden of proof is always on the submitter, so don’t rely on reviewers always doing extra research.
If you can provide any links to these reviews in the supporting text, that would be helpful for the pizza place. For almost every local business I submit, I research them first to see if they have a website and/or social media and provide a link; if not, I may provide the link to a review site, like Yelp or even Google Maps. Here’s a few examples of the supporting text I provided for a few local restaurants that I’ve gotten approved:
It’s not always the case that you may need to resubmit. As Xeno noted, if you are willing to share screenshots of your nomination, we’d be glad to take a look and see if it may be a good nomination to appeal, or if it may be better to resubmit with additional info.
It’s up to the submitter to create a convincing reason why the wayspot should be accepted, not for the reviewer to trawl through sources that you didn’t provide.
Hmm. Their website doesn’t really help you explain why this place is a great local hang out. And the fact that they close by 9pm doesn’t do a lot to sell that concept, either.
But Google makes it look like they might have a tabletop Ms. Pac-man game. If that is still there, it could be used as a selling point. Table top video games aren’t very common anymore, though they were ubiquitous at pizza joints in the 80s.
Yeah, I have to disagree with the 9pm closing. Many local coffee shops may only be open for morning and early afternoon hours, and not all pizza places are open until 2am for those looking for late night snacks. Also, it’s not uncommon these days for restaurants having trouble finding workers, therefore they may have to cut their operating hours.
I also see on Google Maps that dine-in is offered, along with takeout and delivery:
Bluntly, do you want to get your wayspots accepted or not? If you do, then you have to put in the work. You don’t have to write an essay but you do have to put in some effort.
Let’s not get negative here. Yes, the burden of proof is on the submitter, and advice on how to improve on this in the future has been provided. At this point, the OP has appealed the nomination, si we just have to wait and see what the appeals team decides.
This system is clearly broken. So to submit or nominate you have to write a PhD dissertation on why it’s important to the community. I fail to see how every corner store or Starbucks is important in a large metropolitan area. Reviewers have no idea what is important in small rural areas/towns. I have lived in both. Most of what is important to the small farming communities violates the criteria. Heck we don’t even have sidewalks other than downtown. No way you can make a city dweller comprehend this.
Starbucks has a sponsorship with PoGo, but not all Starbucks actually have Wayspots. The sponsorship is about 9 yrs old, and no new locations have been added to PoGo since then.
There are also come convenience stores that have sponsorships with PoGo, and sponsored stops/gyms do not need to meet Wayspot criteria as they aren’t added by Wayfarer, but by PoGo.
This is a misleading assumption.
I myself am from a small farming community, live in a larger area now, and I have found about 20 Wayspots there in the last 2 years in my small hometown, and all have been approved. It can be helpful to know what may or may not be eligible in low-density/rural areas, and we do have a great thread with tips: Tips for Rural Nominators
Let’s try to stay on topic about this pizza place.
I mean, evidence of something as obvious as you are saying can take one sentence and/or one link. Essays would likely rather contribute to negative outcomes. It’s not an attack on you personally to suggest to include proof, and it’s not suspicion of you personally - it’s standard practice.
I am much more likely to accept a nomination if the submitter has made an effort to explain why it is important. Sure, it’s not always possible to persuade every reviewer but the fact remains that making an effort will get you better results overall.
If it’s important to you, then make the effort. If you are convinced that it’s a good submission then tweak it and make the effort again. I think the most difficult one I had was eight submissions to approve a perfectly good wayspot, input from members of this forum helped a lot to polish the submission to get it passed. I’m guessing that most contributors here have been through something similar, so we are really just giving advice from experience.
